Category: The Shepherd Publications

MAXWELL ON INFLUENCE (1)
One of my favourite and respected authors is John C. Maxwell. In his book – The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, he wrote on ‘the law of influence’ (chapter 2). What actually makes people become men and women of influence? I will be expounding on two out of the factors in this first part of the series.

#1 WHO THEY ARE
The first thing that stands out about people of influence is the depth of their character. This is about the inner life of the person that radiates for all to see. In a world where integrity and uprightness, sincerity of purpose and genuine love for people are scarce, what draws more and more people to you are these virtues.

THOUGHTS ARE POWERFUL!
The story was told of a man on a journey who suddenly found himself at paradise. He sat down under the ‘desire tree’ (a kind of tree in paradise that gets your desires immediately fulfilled. When you sit under it, all you need to do is to think about it). He thought: “I am hungry, so it would be nice to have a bite right now.” Just before the thought flipped past his mind, a table dressed with different dishes appeared right before him.
Wow! – The man was surprised, – “but it can’t be!” He thought so, and the table with dishes disappeared immediately. “It would be nice to get it back” – the dishes appeared again.

OVERCOMING SECRET SINFUL HABITS (Part 4)
Charles Spurgeon used this parable to illustrate the bondage of sin. He said, “There was once a tyrant who summoned one of his subjects into his presence and ordered him to make a chain. The poor blacksmith—that was his occupation—had to go to work and forge the chain. When it was done, he brought it into the presence of the tyrant and was ordered to take it away and make it twice the length. He brought it again to the tyrant, and again he was ordered to double it. He came back when he had obeyed the order, and the tyrant looked at it then commanded the servants to bind the man hand and foot with the chain he had made and cast him into prison.”

OVERCOMING SECRET SINFUL HABITS (Part 3)
Someone once told us a story of how he found himself in one serious situation that had defied all solutions. It got to a point that he had to write a letter to a notable man of God in America to seek for help. In the end, he got his liberation from Proverbs 18:24 which says “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” That was the verse that broke his chain!

The focus of this third edition on the series is God’s provisions for overcoming secret sinful habits that have plagued your life. No matter how long you have been in that stronghold, the revelation of God’s word will liberate you. This is possible when God opens your eyes to a verse or passage of the scripture that has been written to address your peculiar problem.

OVERCOMING SECRET SINFUL HABITS (Part 2)
During my undergraduate days in the University, a fellow once opened up about his addiction to masturbation, and the Pastor put together a small group to organize a special prayer session for him. I was part of that small group that prayed for this particular person. I can remember how fervently we prayed and conducted a sort of deliverance for him that night at the University sports centre. It appears as if his struggle had ended, only to discover that the young man was far from being free.

Before I address God’s provisions for your deliverance in part 3 from the yoke of any form of terrible sin, give me your ears first.

OVERCOMING SECRET SINFUL HABITS (Part 1)
I have received some of the most distressing messages bothering on this subject of secret sinful habits, and I sense that it is time to address this monster that has become a destructive tool in the hand of the Devil. I received a message at a time that took me days to give the sender any concrete reply. The young man was forced to send a follow up message because he thought I had forgotten him. Not at all! I just needed to get a word from the Lord on how to address his frustration. He had been caught up in a particular secret sinful habit such that he had lost all hope for a break off. He saw my number somewhere and he decided to reach out for help.

NOT THE WISE, MIGHTY AND NOBLE
Samuel Brengle, an early Salvation Army official was once introduced as “the Great Dr. Brengle.” He later wrote in his diary, “If I appear great in their eyes, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without Him, and helping me to keep little in my own eyes. He does use me. But I am so concerned that He uses me and that it is not of me the work is done. The axe cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. The woodsman made it, sharpened it, and used it. The moment he throws it aside, it becomes only an old iron. “O, that I may never lose sight of this!”

God delights in men who consider themselves the least among those who can accomplish anything for God. Such men turn out to be God’s favorites.

CITY WITHOUT KING (Part 3)
“And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.” Judges 2:14
In this third and last part of this series, I will like to draw your attention to the consequences of living in a lawless and perverse society. In the book of Judges, the Bible says “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Sadly, the book ended with the same trembling tone “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25

CITY WITHOUT KING (Part 2)
In 1978, the story was told of an ungrateful son, Thomas Hansen of Boulder Colorado, who sued his parents for $350,000 on grounds of “malpractice of parenting.” Mom and Dad had botched his upbringing so badly, he charged in his suit, that he would need years of costly psychiatric treatment. We still have such ungrateful sons and daughters today who resist control, not only from parents but they say no to any form of instruction, guidance and admonition from those who wished them well.

CITY WITHOUT KING (Part 1)
During the civil war Abraham Lincoln met with a group of ministers for a prayer breakfast. One of the ministers said, “Mr. President, let us pray that God is on our side”. Lincoln’s response showed far greater insight, “No, gentlemen, let us pray that we are on God’s side.” Like America, never at any time did the Nation of Israel abandon God like the time of the Judges. They were at many times not on the side of God. This became a major highlight of the Book of Judges as the book describes the state of backsliding and moral corruption of the Nation of Israel.

In the same book of Judges where their moral decadence was x-rayed we also found the root cause of the Nation’s constant departure from God, and here is it “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Judges 17:6.